Making Us Drive Safer
Ever since cars were invented, we’ve seen an ongoing march of technological advancements. Many of the more popular or exciting examples cover helping us drive faster, with more convenience, or with added amenities. But what is just as important is what’s keeping you safe. Here are some of the new things keeping you safe during your ride, and how you can keep them running.
New Innovations
Because accidents come from a variety of different sources, a lot of the innovations we see target those sources. Let’s talk about night driving as a start. This can always be a common time for accidents, but especially in isolated areas. This is because there’s less lighting to work with a higher chance of animals on the road. It’s good practice to make sure that you drive a little slower and are more alert while driving at night. But you could always use some help. For example, Mercedes-Benz Night View Assist PLUS uses a forward-facing infrared camera. You can use this to keep track of animals and pedestrians that get too close to the road.
Human fatigue is a factor in accidents at any time of day, and Audi is putting out an example of tech designed to combat this. It doesn’t take over driving, but provides audio and visual cues via its lane departure system if the car begins to drift out of its original lane. Drivers can use this warning to pull over, get help, or gather their focus if they are close to their destination.
In some cases, we focus too much on the people in the cars during an accident, when they are not the only people at risk. Volvo tackled this issue by adding external airbags to certain Land Rover car models. These are designed specifically for pedestrians in accidents. When the car detects an impact, the airbag deploys right in front of the windshield, softening the impact of the of the pedestrian.
Self-Driving Help?
It would be remiss to not talk about the biggest potential safety innovation of all, self driving vehicles. In one report, it was said that autonomous vehicles could reduce traffic accidents by 90%, while saving $190 billion. This makes some sense. At the end of the day, the vast majority of accidents have some sort of human error as a factor, whether it’s distraction, intoxication, or failure to follow the rules of the road. The report said that adoption will start in earnest around 15 years from now, so who knows what we will see.
The thing about all these factors is that even as tech improves, it still needs to be maintained and supported to do its job. In addition, maintenance for other car systems is also one of the best safety practices you can implement yourself. For example, check to make sure your tires aren’t worn, or that you don’t have a system failure waiting to happen. This is why you want to get your car regularly serviced at an Albuquerque auto repair business to make sure that these innovations stay working for you and your family.
